The cure for the religious act and the impetus for the life well-lived.

Wherefore, O Splendor of the Father, the Likeness of his Essence, His immutable and unchangeable Nature, Thou art the fountain of salvation and grace. Open my lips, sinner that I am, and teach me how and for what I should pray; for Thou dost know the multitude of my sins, but Thine unbounded compassion doth overcome the enormity thereof. Behold, I come and stand before Thee in fear and dismay, casting my soul’s despair into the depth of Thy mercy. Ordain my life, O Thou Who rulest the whole creation with ineffable wisdom. O tranquil Haven to those who are caught in the rages of winter, make known to me the way in which I should walk. Grant to my thoughts the spirit of Thy wisdom, and bestow upon my ignorance the spirit of Thy understanding. Overshadow mine acts with the spirit of Thy fear; a just spirit renew Thou within me, and by Thy Sovereign Spirit strengthen Thou mine unstable mind, that I may be worthy each day to do Thy commandments, being guided by Thy righteous Spirit into that which is profitable, ever mindful of Thy glorified (second) Coming, when we shall all be obliged to give an answer for our deeds. Let me not be led astray by the corrupting pleasures of this world, but strengthen me to delight in the treasures to come. For Thou, O Master, didst say, “Whatever ye ask in My Name ye shall receive” from God the Father co-eternal with Thee.


Our growth into the "likeness of God," where, as Saint John said:
1Jn 3:1 ff "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. "
 
This has nothing to do with an "act of imitating." The act of imitating is the root of hypocrisy, which means "acting." 
 
We were not clones of God, but creations, and created as "persons," which is an image of his personhood, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three persons. When Jesus walked with his disciples, he enjoyed their individuality, and their uniqueness and made remarks of admiration and humor recorded in scripture about their characteristics, not clones, but individuals. It is our personhood, our individuality, our creativity, and our personality that is to be refined in us by his mercy and grace, by the presence of the Holy Spirit. 
 
This is the challenge, not to become a clone, but to be uniquely refined, so that we BECOME like him, not an imitation of him.
 
 
Rex Christi
Beautiful. We are not a synthesis of God and sin in flesh, we are human persons whose glory is in the restoration of our true humanity in Christ and the power of the individual human person is in the doing, not the synthetic acting as if and faking it until we make it.
 
 
Rex Christi
Grant to my thoughts the spirit of Thy wisdom, and bestow upon my ignorance the spirit of Thy understanding. Overshadow mine acts with the spirit of Thy fear; a just spirit renew Thou within me, and by Thy Sovereign Spirit strengthen Thou mine unstable mind, that I may be worthy each day to do Thy commandments, being guided by Thy righteous Spirit into that which is profitable, ever mindful of Thy glorified (second) Coming, when we shall all be obliged to give an answer for our deeds. - from the kneeling prayers at Vespers on the Feast of Pentecost
 
 
Archpriest Symeon Elias
The cure for the religious act and the impetus for the life well-lived.
 
 
Rex Christi
In the original meaning of religion derived from the Latin, it is to bind oneself and isn't that what Jesus did at the incarnation? He bound human nature to the Divinity in His Person and then Ascended to sit at the right hand of the Father. We CANNOT imitate that, we can only participate in His action; otherwise, we are simply a lying facsimile of man.
 
 
Archpriest Symeon Elias
c. 1200, religioun, "state of life bound by monastic vows,"
Not all are called to go by the same worldly path.
 
 
The Gospel according to St. Maximus the Confessor:
“This, it seems to me, is the “gospel of God,” namely, that the incarnate Son is God’s ambassador and advocate for humanity, and has earned reconciliation to the Father for those who yield to Him for the divinization that is without origin.” – Responses to Thalassios, 61.12
 


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